WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange Police Department and its officers had an ally at the Oct. 29 Township Council meeting, when 9-1-1 dispatcher Chris Babinski spoke to council members and asked them and the administration to finalize a contract for the police union, which has been working without one since the last contract expired at the end of 2017. Babinski, a native of West Orange, has been working for the department for the last 30 years.
“When I started, it was a go-between job,” he said during the public comment portion of the meeting. “It was a pickup job. I had two buttons I pushed back then. One was for the telephone and one was for the radio. If I lost the call, I had a callback button to see why they were calling.”
While the technology has changed and now Babinski and his colleagues have more resources to help at the scene of an accident, he said his job at the WOPD do hasn’t changed drastically over the same period of time.
“We comfort people in times of need, we console people who lost a loved one, we manage an active fire scene, we try to quiet someone who is angry,” Babinski said. “It’s not easy, for eight hours — and sometimes 16 hours — a day, seeing people at their worst. What didn’t increase was the salary.”
According to Babinski, the starting salary for a dispatcher is $21,100 per year. After working in the department for 30 years, he said he makes around $52,000 per year. Babinski’s son, Dylan, is a dispatcher as well, and when he took a job in Montclair his starting salary was $48,000 per year.
“We are not paying a competitive salary here to retain a healthy employee base,” Babinski said. “We are getting people that are coming, getting trained and walking out the door. How do you expect to keep people here if you’re paying them below the federal poverty level?”
Health benefits are a big piece of the contract the department and the township are negotiating, and Babinski asked why the state health plan isn’t an option. He stressed the importance of mental health services being included for first responders as well, saying that he pays out of pocket to see a counselor.
“Mental health services are one of the most important things for your first responders,” Babinski said. “If you think it’s easy seeing people at their worst for eight to 16 hours a day, try it. It takes a lot of guts to do what we do. It takes a lot of strength to do what we do. And we feel devalued because we’re not getting paid to do what we do. Does it make it any better? No, but it lessens the time you have to deal with it. We need relief, and we need relief in a fair contract. That’s all we’re asking for.”
Babinski and the other dispatchers are in a different union from the police officers, but he said at the meeting that members of the department have advocated for him when he was in the same position.
“I advocate for both my police and firefighter brothers, because they stood up and advocated for me,” he said. “I should advocate for them. I tell them where to go every time, so why not speak up for them too?”
West Orange PBA Local 25 President Chris Jacksic did not respond to a request for comment before press time on Nov. 5. Superior Officers Association President Michael Cassidy also did not respond to a request for comment before press time.
The council voted to go into executive session to obtain an update from the administration on the contract negotiations. In a phone interview with the West Orange Chronicle on Oct. 31, council President Jerry Guarino said the council hasn’t heard any updates.
“Not that I know about,” he said. “We haven’t heard anything from the administration. I’m sure something will be coming soon.”
Mayor Robert Parisi said in a phone interview with the Chronicle on Oct. 31 that there have been no changes in the process recently and that the two sides are still negotiating. There is no timeline for when the contract will be completed.
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